It is impossible to separate any character from their environment. Hopefully, that environment has a good story, one with a plot. This is why reality TV cannot compete with a good story. The former is meandering, forcing producers to create artificial situations to make the program interesting. An audience wants to see how people react...

No matter how great a story is, how generous is the budget you’ve got or how breaths taking your action scenes are; unless you have a great character your story has a good chance of failing. When you are reading a book, watching a play or a movie, what you’re looking for is an escape...

Scripted drama gives a different, more intensive experience of television. Scripted dramas engage viewers intensively because they require a certain level of loyalty. Successful scripted dramas engage viewers for longer time periods, making a more lasting relationship with the viewer. The example of My Generation shows us that check-in apps can’t do all the work....

Paramount have secured sci-fi/horror short ‘Vessel’ by Clark Baker and renowned genre writer Stephen Susco, best known for The Grudge, is tipped to both write and produce a feature length adaptation which will retain Baker as director. Vessel has been likened to genre classics ‘Alien’, ‘The Thing’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and...

When contrast is at its greatest, the possibility for humor and conflict is high. ― Cornering the characters‖ is taking two characters and placing them in opposite corners. A classic example is The Odd Couple where main characters and roommates Oscar and Felix are the complete opposite of one another in mannerisms and formality. From...

The reason ― Cinderella works as an entertaining tale is the contrast in the two main characters. Cinderella is a poor girl living a miserable life, while the Prince has it all. He can have any girl he wants and he chooses her. If the story were to begin with Cinderella already a Princess, instantly...

The mind can’t help but expect certain results in any given situation; characters behave in the same way. When the general details of a situation are given, clichés are expected. A wonderful way to use this concept is to do the complete opposite. Turn the cliché upside down! Jim Rockford from The Rockford Files was...

The role of placing the audience within the body of the protagonist is a tricky one. After all, it is unlikely that the writer has experienced the excitement of saving the world from doom or from being the super villain who is bent on world domination. Yet that is precisely the goal of a screenwriter....

In a bid to shore up their developmental portfolio, MGM are in the final stages of negotiations for Maria Maggenti’s adaptation of non-fiction book ‘One Red Paper Clip’ by Kyle MacDonald. Maggenti is best known for penning both Fox 200’s ‘Mote Carlo’ which stars Selena Gomez and Lionsgate’s Kenny Ortega helmed remake of ‘Dirty Dancing’....

Consider a protagonist: he is an average Joe with marriage problems whom we find driving home from work as the story begins. He runs a red light at a deserted intersection. A police officer is watching. The officer turns on his emergency lights and pulls our hero over. The police officer asks for the usual...